


Indecisive

by Dusklatte



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Canon-Typical Violence, Except Byleth doesn't decide between the two sides, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Imprisonment, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating subject to change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25432108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dusklatte/pseuds/Dusklatte
Summary: “As I have said many times… I am not siding with either of you. I do not belong to the Church, nor do I owe the Empire my loyalty.”“That is… unfortunate. But your indecisiveness is equivalent to betrayal, so until you change your mind about not joining with me, you shall remain here.”
Relationships: Relationships to Be Determined - Relationship
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Indecisive

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for ages, and have never really been able to get it into words until recently! It is based on the scenario where, when in the Holy Tomb and you are given the decision to side with the Church or Edelgard, a decision is made to side with neither.  
>  ~~*Cue FE Fates flashbacks here*~~

“Have you taken some time to come around to the correct side of this situation?”

Byleth scowled as she felt an overbearing pair of eyes watch over her every little move, and every little action. She could barely do anything without it being interpreted as an act of resistance or compliance. Something… Which she did not want to do.

“As I have said many times… I am not siding with either of you. I do not belong to the Church, nor do I owe the Empire my loyalty.”

“That is… unfortunate. But your indecisiveness is equivalent to betrayal, so until you change your mind about not joining with me, you shall remain here.”

She watched as the Archbishop gave her a pitiful look, before she left, the cell door closing behind her. Byleth couldn’t quite believe her current situation, imprisoned deep below Garreg Mach, simply because she did not want to play a part in a war, of anything.

* * *

* * *

_“So, it is my teacher who stands in my way. I always knew it would come to this...”_

_“Professor. Kill Edelgard at once. She is a danger to all of Fódlan. Such a rebellious heart cannot be allowed to keep beating.”_

_To one side was one of her beloved students. Edelgard – the princess-turned-Empress, who had won her over with her words all the way back in the late Lone Moon of the previous year. To her other was the Archbishop of the Church of Seiros – the one who had granted her permission to wield her weapon, and guided her in the dark times after her father’s death and taking on Sothis’ powers._

_They were at deadlock. Both wanted Byleth on their side. Both had reason to have Byleth on their side._

_But Byleth could not – would not – be pressured into deciding. Not with the current spitting of venom between one-another, and weapons poised to strike. It agitated the professor._

_Not normally one for words, Byleth’s shout had brought everyone to a stunned silence. “No! Stop this right now! I will not get involved with any of this… this fighting!” Students from the Black Eagle house which she taught were present, and were unsure of how they were to respond to the current situation. “Rhea! I am not a member of the Church of Seiros. I will not execute people in the name of Sothis!” She was glancing at Rhea at that point, who clearly held no emotion aside from rage on her face. She then turned to the Black Eagles’ house leader. “Edelgard! I am not going to join you in a march to war! More peaceful methods exist than fighting, and I should know that, with my mercenary upbringing.”_

_Byleth gritted her teeth, and stepped away from both the Archbishop and the new Adrestian Emperor. She had hoped that her stance had been enough to at least get Rhea and Edelgard to re-think their current mindsets… but no._

_It had resulted in far worse._

_“Guards! Apprehend the Professor and kill Edelgard at once!”_

* * *

* * *

Since that day, Byleth had been a prisoner of the Church of Seiros. She was stuck with her ankle chained to a wall, and her wrists bound together.

‘ _She is dangerous,’_ she recalled Rhea telling the guards not long after she had woken up in her cell. ‘ _Too dangerous to be allowed her freedom to choose a side. It must be the Church, or else she shall remain here until the end of her days.’_

It was only fortunate that she was not guarded all hours of the day. Upon hearing of her being detained from a worried Flayn, Claude and Dimitri had found a way to sneak down to give her company when she had nobody watching over her. They would bring her rations and updates on the goings on in the outside world. She had appreciated the time they had brought her cake and treats made by both Lysithea and Mercedes, as well as a small paperback novel from Ashe, which was small enough to be quietly stashed under the sheets of the run-down bed she was expected to use.

They had been slowly conjuring a plan to return her freedom to her, and to get her away from Rhea and the soon-to-be-invading Edelgard.

Their most recent update had been from a scouting mission which Felix and Leonie had been on, to locate the Sword of the Creator. It turned out that the weapon was being stored out in the open, but unfortunately in a place frequented by Rhea – the Audience Chamber where she would spend most of her day. From there, Claude had taken it upon himself to learn the schedules of the guards, Seteth, and Rhea, so he could find an opportune moment to return it to its rightful wielder.

A few minutes had passed from Rhea’s visit, and finally, Byleth heard the guards outside her room preparing to leave. She did her best to listen to what they were saying – she would typically get an indication of how long she would be left unguarded, and in turn, gave a window of time for Claude and Dimitri’s next visit.

“Apparently the next guard you’re going to be with after your break is going to be somebody close to this prisoner. Y’know, Alois?”

“Damn… Really? You’re lucky to be finishing for today now. Alois’ jokes are the worst. Plus he’s that eager, my break is going to be shorter than usual! I’ll be lucky to get half an hour if that!”

“Hah! Good luck, you’re going to need it.”

Byleth tensed up slightly. _Alois was next up in guarding her?!_ It would be the first time since she was locked up that she would be seeing him… And no doubt he would start telling her that ‘Jeralt would want her to do the right thing’… Which to her was the very reason she had been imprisoned in the first place.

But in addition to that, she was concerned about the timeframe which had been given. _Half an hour if that._ Typically, Claude and Dimitri would be able to spend a good part of an hour, including the times they would have to dive into hiding as patrols went past.

As if on cue for finally hearing the guards leave the prison, she watched as a grate on the floor in the hallway which led to Garreg Mach’s ventilation systems began to shift, and a familiar gloved hand grab at the edge. She did her best to get over to the door of her cell to greet them, but the chain around her ankle stopped her.

Byleth forced a faint smile onto her face when Dimitri finally pulled himself up, but then reached his hand down to help somebody up.

“Professor… Claude was unable to join me today, but I hope that you do not mind if another of the Golden Deer join us. She has been worried ever since she heard about the way in which you had been restrained, and asked to come along for if you were in any pain…”

Her forced smile now began to turn into a very slight genuine one as the other visitor was brought up to the hallway. “Any company which isn’t Rhea or the guards is fine with me…” As she said that, she was surprised at who emerged. She hadn’t expected Marianne, out of any of the Golden Deer. She had assumed that it would have been Leonie or Lysithea. “Also, you don’t have long today. I would say twenty minutes at most… Alois is set to be guarding me next, and… Well, you know that he enjoys his job.”

Dimitri nodded as he resealed the grate, before sitting down by the door of the cell. Marianne bit her lip slightly, but then proceeded to copy his actions.

“P-Professor… You look hungry. We, um… We brought this for you. Dedue made it not long ago…” Marianne whispered, removing a drawstring bag which was around her waist, before handing it over. “It is a s-sandwich and some small snacks which you can eat…” She then moved it past the bars of the door, and placed in Byleth’s reach. As the professor picked it up, in spite of her bound hands, Marianne gasped. “Have you had your hands tied in such a way for two weeks? It looks painful… M- May I heal it?”

Byleth looked down at her wrists, before nodding slowly. “It does hurt… It’s the only way that Rhea can guarantee that I wouldn’t try attacking her and her guards, or using magic…”

As Marianne quietly cast some healing magic to tend to the injuries on her arms, Byleth began to listen to Dimitri’s update on their plan to assure her escape.

“Was Rhea talking to you not long before we arrived here? Well… Claude used that as an opportunity to retrieve the Sword of the Creator. There hasn’t been any alarm raised over it yet, but for safe keeping, he will be taking it to Abyss. Our four friends there have prepared a safe storage area for it, far from the prying eyes of the Church. When we get you free from here, these ventilation systems also lead to Abyss, so we will be able to unite you with your sword quite quickly,” he began, before taking a quick glance to make sure that there were no signs of guards about. “But I have to ask… My apologies if this is not a question you wish to answer… But if you were given the opportunity to quell this coming war by siding with neither one of the Church or… _her…_ would you do it?”

“In a heartbeat. I am not Rhea’s pawn, and I am not Edelgard’s weapon.”

Dimitri nodded, before he closed his eyes. “I will let Claude know that when I meet with him next then,” he said, before a small sigh escaped him. “Anyway, Professor… How have you been coping here? Would you appreciate another book during tomorrow’s visit?”

It was at this moment that Marianne had finished healing, so her brought her hands up to her mouth, but used only one of them as she hummed in thought. “There is one specific book which I wouldn’t mind being brought here… It means an awful lot to me,” Byleth explained, before sighing and closing her eyes. “Unless the room has been gutted by Rhea already, inside a drawer in my room… There is a leather-bound journal that belonged to my father. Could you possibly bring me that?”

Once Dimitri had said that he would do his best to get it for her, there was the sound of footsteps beginning to echo down the halls. Straight away, Byleth shoved the bag of food and snacks under the bed, before gesturing for Dimitri and Marianne to quickly get away before they too joined her in imprisonment.

Just as the grate fell back into place, she heard the owner of the steps turn the corner, leading towards her cell. She was expecting it to be Alois, based on what she had heard from the guards earlier, but instead was met with a face she hadn’t been expecting to see at any point soon.

“Good afternoon, Professor… How delightful it is to see that the wretched Archbishop has not executed you yet.”

“ _Hubert.”_

“Yes, that is my name, do not wear it out,” the dark mage chuckled, before casting a spell in the direction of the cell’s lock. It promptly shattered under the pressure of the dark magic, allowing the door to swing open of its own accord. “To think, our strong, brave professor whom Lady Edelgard treasured as a close friend and confidant, brought down to a mere prisoner in chains. No more than a pawn in the Church’s plans.”

By this point, Byleth had backed up against the wall opposite to the door, her fists clenched as Hubert took a few small steps towards her. “As I said to Rhea… I’m not siding with the Church, and I’m not siding with Edelgard either. I refuse to partake in any war.”

“You are a fool if you believe that you have options beyond the two you are insistent on turning down. This war is inevitable. Everyone else from the Black Eagles have chosen the correct side. How come you insist on being so stubborn?”

“Because there are better options than war!”

“Wrong.” Hubert’s eyes narrowed, before he made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Lady Edelgard gave me strict orders to find you, and bring you back to where you belong if you were to accept the hand which she has kept so graciously extended out to you. If you were to continue to refuse… My orders were simple,” he muttered, raising his hand as dark magic began to fill the air around it. “You must die. Goodbye, Byleth.”

Byleth barely had a chance to defend herself by the time that the blast of dark magic hit her. Her eyes widened in horror as she tried to move her body, realising that she had been impaled by dark spikes – a spell she herself had taught him a mere few weeks earlier. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t cry, she couldn’t move – the most she could do was make a few small choking noises as her body twitched and pulsated with the painful dark magic.

From the corner of her blurring vision, she watched Hubert warp away. That led to her falling down onto the ground with a loud thud as the spikes dissipated. She was trembling as she tried to steady her breathing and focus on anything but the pain coursing through her body. She had heard of the dreadful effects which dark magic had on the human body – it was supposedly similar to a poison, albeit much, _much_ harder to remove.

A small part of her hoped that Dimitri and Marianne had been close enough to hear the situation, but she knew that they would have left quickly so as to not be caught talking to her.

All that she could do now was hold onto her consciousness until the next guards arrived at the door. She knew at the very least, Alois would do his best to get her some help.

Her entire world faded to darkness just as she heard a shout of her name.


End file.
